On Sunday the 15th of February 2015, Kyle Verreynne took the Somerset College T20 festival by storm. He amassed a total of 211 runs in the two matches without being dismissed once, a feat that saw the Wynberg talisman notch up the “batsman of the tournament” award.

Rondebosch had little hesitation in batting on a good pitch in Paarl on Saturday, the 25 January. Despite the early loss of Keagan Langford, Matthew Christensen and Murray Commins took the attack to the home attack.

Rondebosch Boys High Schools’ rise to prominence as a cricketing powerhouse amongst the so-called “elite” schools cannot be denied or overlooked on anybody’s watch. Having undergone a cricket-revolution back in 2010, the school has gone from strength to strength boasting fine achievements in the sport.

There is always something special about Wynberg/Rondebosch derby matches. Both schools place a high regard on their cricket performances and the long history of competition between them ensures that pride is always at stake.

With the strength of first class cricket in South Africa at an all time high, and the Proteas on top of the Test match rankings, little fault can be found with cricket in South Africa. However, one area of concern that has not been properly addressed within the last decade is that of developing a world class, wicket-taking spin bowler.

Rondebosch welcomed traditional rivals Bishops to Cricket A on Saturday. Persistent rain on Friday meant the wicket had a little moisture in it and a greenish tinge to the grass, which persuaded Bishops to insert the hosts upon winning the toss.

North net South on Saturday as Rondebosch hosted the very successful Affies 1st XI on their traditional end of season tour of Cape Town.

Bosch had no hesitation in batting first on a decent looking wicket and openers Matthew Christensen and Riaz Sader proceeded to make full use of the conditions. The pair took full control of the match as they rotated strike beautifully with an energetic display of running between wickets. Affies were never allowed to build any pressure as the strike was rotated almost at will and bad deliveries were hit to the boundary. This allowed the partnership to maintain a consistent tempo (the 50 partnership came up in the 14th over, the 100 in the 27th and the 150 in the 42nd). Riaz was eventually the 1st to go, well caught in the deep for 83 ending the impressive 157 run opening stand.

Matthew departed soon after the lunch break for 88 and it was left to Hayes van der Berg and Zubayr Hamza to administer the final rights to the Affies attack. Hayes ended on 52 not out and Zubayr 25 not out to enable Bosch to declare on 252 for 2 after 67 overs.

Affies had 63 overs left in the day to chase down the score, and despite a run out, were well-placed to launch an attack at 58 for 1 with 40 overs still remaining in the day. A double strike by Riaz Sader in which he dismissed the two dangerous left handers, Leus du Plloy and Drian Bruwer, effectively ended Affies’ hopes of a victory and the batsmen went into survival mode.

Despite the best efforts of the bowlers, a victory for the hosts was not to be, as the visitors proved resilient on a wicket that was offering less and less assistance. All the bowlers bowled good spells but eventually Affies ended the day on 143 for 6 after 63 overs

It would be Rondebosch and Waterkloof who contested the Coca-Cola Schools T20 Challenge after over 600 teams had all had their opportunity to stake a claim as the best school team in this format.

Rondebosch seem to have found form just at the right time and their earlier loss against St. Andrew’s Bloem had given them just the shock they needed to motivate them to play at their best. Matt Christensen had been in tremendous form throughout the season and much was relied upon him along with the rest of the ‘Bosch batters to give themselves a defendable target.

However Waterkloof who are enjoying one of their best season’s to date had already shown along their journey to the finals that they are a formidable side and capable of rolling over most teams. Johannes Malan had played some important innings for Waterkloof in the preceding matches and they needed another strong showing from the opener if ‘Klofies were going to compete.

Batting first Rondebosch lost Christensen early and their captain Hayes van der Berg and were on their backfoot at 2/20 in the fifth over. Waterkloof had opened the bowling with the medium pacer Migael Pretorius who bowled a lively pace to end with two precious wickets in his spell.

However it was the man of the match Zubayr Hamza that would make the difference between the two sides. The Rondebosch no. 3 batsmen played a wonderful innings as he stroked his way to a half century which included seven boundaries off just 44 balls. It was the only innings of substance as the rest of the Rondebosch batters struggled against the slow left arm spin of Reinhardt Grobbelaar who frustrated the ‘Bosch batsmen to claim two wickets for only 17 runs in a tight spell.

Needing to score at just on 5.6 runs per over Waterkloof would have backed themselves to reach the 112 runs required at a canter. However the mercurial Dayaan Galiem who opened the bowling for Rondebosch struck in his first over and then proceeded to take another wicket in his next two overs to rock Waterkloof at 3/11.

It was a disastrous start to the run chase for Waterkloof who despite some gallant efforts by the left hander Lehan Janse van Rensburg who scored 28 runs and Henco Vorstman who made 24 runs never fully. Some great fielding by Rondebosch and a clinical bowling display saw Waterkloof bowled out for 102 just 10 runs shy of the victory.

Congratulations to all the teams who took part in the challenge, the finalists and the Rondebosch for the excellent spirit in which the matches were played.

A beautiful day in Cape Town set the scene for the Day/Night fixture between these schools and the schoolboys turned out in numbers to support their cricketers. Rondebosch won the toss and had no hesitation in electing a bat on a wicket that looked like it would be slow and take some turn. The Bosch openers took their time getting set but then in the 5th over Riaz Sader went on the attack, hitting 4 boundaries and giving the innings some impetus. Bishops turned to their spinners early in the piece and Van As and Jones created pressure through some tight bowling resulting in the wicket of Christensen being caught and bowled by Jones with the score on 45.

Hayes van der Berg joined Sader and the pair progressed to 60 before Sader also fell to Jones, bringing Zubayr Hamza to the crease in his 100th match for Rondebosch. The pair showed their experience as the worked the bowling around until Wilson trapped Hamza in front for 22. Murray Commins joined his captain and the duo continued the good work and at 169 for 3 with 6 overs of the 45 still remaining it seemed as if Bosch would post in the region of 220. Jones and Julius had other ideas - Julius bowled Commins for 34 and Jones had Van der Berg caught and bowled for 53 in the next over. A spectacular collapse followed which saw Bosch being bowled out for 186 in the final over. Jones was the standout performer for Bishops with 6 for 32 in his 9 overs.

The Bishops run chase was hampered by the loss of wickets up front in the face of some penetrative bowling from the Bosch seamers and at 51 for 4 the scales were tipped firmly in the favour of the visitors. Daniel Lombard and Jordan Flax were not however prepared to lie down and built an impressive stand. Lombard (41 off 40 balls) in particular began to attack the Bosch bowlers and it seemed that Bishops would replicate their recent successful run chases against Grey PE and SACS. Jay Stevens returned to the attack and managed to rush Lombard in to a pull shot and soon afterward Flax (31) was run out by a brilliant direct hit from Zubayr Hamza and the writing was on the wall for Bishops.

The tail battled bravely, but Hayes van der Berg (3 for 22) proved too much at the death and Bishops were bowled out for 160, giving Rondebosch a 26 run victory. Riaz Sader (1 for 29 off 9), Kay Skovgaard-Peterson (2 for 25) and Jay Stevens (2 for 22) will all be very happy with their efforts with the ball.

The match was an intriguing affair, played in a good spirit and with a healthy competitive edge – indicative of the excellent relationship enjoyed by these two schools.

Rondebosch travelled to Port Elizabeth took take on Grey High School in a 2-day match on the Pollock field fresh from the T20 victory over Paul Roos in the Cobras franchise final but were soon in trouble after being asked to bat by the hosts. Dylan Blignaut made the most of some early movement and coupled with the visiting batmen seemingly thinking this was still a T20 game, were soon in a heap of trouble at 28 for 5 with only Riaz Sader’s 20 being of any significance.

Tayo Walbrugh joined Dayyaan Galliem at the crease and the pair began the process of rebuilding the innings with a partnership of 55 before Tayo was well caught by the Grey captain, Lloyd Brown for 19. Michael Cursons (13) and then Kay Skovgaard-Petersen (33) spent significant time at the crease and played the supporting role to Dayyaan as he began to take the attack to the Grey bowlers as the track flattened out. Dayyaan scored all around the wicket and went to his century with a towering six. The Grade 10 learner was eventually last man out in the 80th over for 132, an innings of remarkable maturity and skill. Dayyaan faced 207 balls in his innings which included 10 fours and 3 sixes and which enabled Bosch to post 231. Dylan Blignaut was the stand out performer for The Grey with a remarkable effort of 7 for 36 in 17 overs.

Despite the loss of Matthew Breedske, the hosts negotiated the rest of the day without incident as Bernhard Ferreira and Lloyd Brown took the score to 83 for 1 at the close of day one.

Day two began in bright sunshine and the Grey pair used a cautious approach in the first hour of play to get themselves set before upping the scoring rate as the morning session progressed. The Bosch bowlers stuck to their tasks but will be ruing some uncharacteristic missed opportunities in the field. Brown in particular pressed the accelerator and scored freely all around the wicket and went to a hundred on the stroke of tea. Many thought this would see a declaration from the Grey side but Grey decided to bat as long as possible. Brown was dismissed shortly after the break and Bradley Bopp (42 not out) carried on the quest for runs. Ferreira (81 off 213 balls) and Knoetze both perished in the chase for runs before Grey reached 266 for 4 at the compulsory declaration mark of 80 overs. Kay Skovgaard-Petersen was the best of the Bosch bowlers with 3 for 67 off 20 overs.

With only about 70 overs remaining in the match, a result was always going to be unlikely, and the Armageddon style storm that hit Port Elizabeth at 2.30pm, probably saved the spectators from having to sit through a dull afternoon of cricket. Bosch ended on 49 for 2 with Matthew Christensen on 23 not out.

The Vineyard Oval was the scene for the franchise final for the Cobras region where Rondebosch and Paul Roos met to determine who would go through to the National finals in Stellenbosch.

Rondebosch won the toss and elected to bat on a surface that looked full of runs, but were soon in trouble at 15 for 2 in the 4th over with Matthew Christensen and Hayes van der Berg back in the pavilion. Zubayr Hamza joined Murray Commins at the crease and the pair took the attack to the Paul Roos bowlers in a partnership of 57 off 36 balls. Commins departed for 30 off just 17 balls and fellow Grade 10 learner, Dayyaan Galiem took over where Murray left off. Hamza and Galiem took the total to 114 with 5 overs still remaining and it looked as if Bosch was going to post a formidable score.

The introduction of Botha into the attack changed the game as he and Schoeman ran through the middle order as Bosch lost 4 wickets for just 7 runs in the next 3 overs, including Galiem (27 off 19) and Zubayr Hamza (46 off 41). 25 runs off the last two overs of the innings proved crucial as Riaz Sader picked some gaps in the field in a gem of an innings scoring 21 off just 11 balls to give Rondebosch a final total of 146 for 8.

Paul Roos attacked hard from the start in the powerplay with Johan Siebritz and Arnold Scholtz using the aerial route to good effect. At the end of the first 6 overs Paul Roos were 42 for 1 with Siebritz back in the pavilion and the exciting Niel Botha at the crease. The relaxation of the fielding restrictions allowed the Bosch bowlers to get back into the game and at the halfway mark the score stood at 57 for 2 with Scholtz having been dismissed for 28. Botha and Sean de Necker accelerated the innings nicely and with 21 runs coming off the 13th and 14th over, Paul Roos were nicely placed at 94 for 2 after 14 – needing a further 53 runs off the last 6 overs.

Wickets began to fall around Niel Botha as first De Necker holed out on the boundary and some aggressive running resulted in run outs but while Botha was at the crease Paul Roos were still in the hunt. The last ball of the penultimate over saw Botha push hard to get two, but crucially meant that he was not on strike for the last over with Paul Roos needing 14 to win.

Dayyaan Galiem stepped up to bowl the final over and bowled Theron with his first delivery and then bowled a dot ball to the new batsman to leave Paul Roos still needing 14 runs of 4 balls. A scrambled single brought Botha back on strike and he perished in the cause as Galiem bowled him, effectively ending the game. Botha scored 74 off just 54 balls and with his 3 wickets, would have been a worthy Man-of-the Match recipient.

Bosch eventually won by 10 runs in a match that was a good advert for schoolboy cricket.

Should de Villiers be keeping? What about Morne Van Wyk? Darryn Smit?These are comments thrown around almost consistently by South African cricket lovers. The fact of the matter is that players like Adam Gilchrist or MS Dhoni, who can combine excellent glovework with superb attacking batting ability, are one in a generation. Or are they?